when on their way home from church she walked far away
from Alvin, the neighbors for a long while had no explanation for
Alvin's squirrel-hunts along the base of the mountain instead of up
toward the top of it; and Mrs. Williams, at her home, heard so many
gunshots off in the woods in the course of a day that she attached no
significance to them.

But Alvin's and Gracie's meetings along the shaded roadway that leads to
the Williams home were discovered, and Mrs. Williams put a ban upon
them--for Gracie was too young, she maintained, to have thoughts of
marriage.

The real facts in that mountain courtship are known to but two, and even
now are as carefully guarded as tho the romance had not become a reality
and culminated happily.

But the neighbors have fragments out of which they build a story, and it
varies with the imagination of the relator. The big Sergeant's
confirmation or denial is a smile and a playful, taunting silence that
leaves conclusion in doubt.

There is a path that leads from the store around the side of the
mountain that edges a shoulder between the store and the Williams home.
A little off this path is a large flat rock. Around it massive beech
trees grow and their boughs arch into a dome above the rock. There are
carvings on the trunks of those trees that were not found until the rock
was selected as the altar for a woodland wedding at which the Governor
of Tennessee officiated.

When Gracie would come to the store she passed the York home on her way.
Often, when alone, she would return by the mountain path. It was longer
than by the road, but it was shaded by trees, and as it bends around the
mountain glimpses of the valley could be seen. The rock ledge among the
beech trees was not half way to her home, but it was a picturesque place
to rest, and down below was the roof of the York home and the
spring-branch, as it wound its way to the Wolf River. It was their
favorite meeting-place.

When the war broke in Europe, those who lived in the valley gave little
heed to it. When there was talk of the United States' entry, there was
deep opposition. They were opposed to any war. The wounds of the Civil
War had healed, but the scars it left were deep. The thought of another
armed conflict meant more to the old people than it did to the younger
generation.

"I did not know," Alvin said of himself, "why we were going to war. We
never had any speakings in here, and I did not read the papers closely